Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-hc48f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T03:24:22.750Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Anatomically preserved vojnovskyalean seed plants in Upper Pennsylvanian (Stephanian) marine shales of North America

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 May 2016

Gar W. Rothwell ,
Gene Mapes  and
Royal H. Mapes
Gar W. Rothwell
Affiliation:
1Department of Environmental and Plant Biology
Gene Mapes
Affiliation:
1Department of Environmental and Plant Biology
Royal H. Mapes
Affiliation:
2Department of Geological Sciences, Ohio University, Athens 45701
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Upper Pennsylvanian dysoxic marine shales of midcontinent North America yield permineralized remains of apparently extrabasinal vegetation. A large percentage of the plants are surprisingly unlike the well known swamp, fluvial and lacustrian floras of the late Paleozoic paleotropics, revealing numerous aspects of the morphology, anatomy and reproductive biology of plants that may have been ancestral to the dominant taxa of the Mesozoic. Included among the assemblages are ovulate coniferophyte remains that demonstrate the occurrence of vojnovskyalean seed plants in equatorial Euramerica. Specimens consist of simple ovulate cones that are more-or-less clustered along eustelic stems in the axils of helically arranged, strap-shaped leaf bases, and are described as Sergeia neuburgii new genus and species. Individual cones are up to approximately 2 cm long and 1.5 cm in maximum diameter, with helically arranged scales and sporophylls that diverge from a eustelic axis. Scales occur in the basal region of the cone, and are laminar and pointed. Sporophylls are borne distally. One specimen shows about 45 sporophylls, each of which terminates as one erect ovule. Most of the other cones have abraded apices, and terminate in relatively terete foliar appendages that are interpreted to be sporophyll bases. Ovules are flattened and winged, approaching 180° rotational symmetry. Integument histology, vascular tissue distribution and pollen chamber structure are similar to those of cordaiteans and callistophytalean seed ferns. Sergeia adds to the number of late Paleozoic conifer-like plants that do not conform to the Pinopsida as traditionally circumscribed, and poses additional questions to assumptions of monophyly for coniferophytes and for conifers sensu lato.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Paleontology , Volume 70 , Issue 6 , November 1996 , pp. 1067 - 1079
Copyright
Copyright © The Paleontological Society 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Arnold, C. A. 1948. Classification of gymnosperms from the view-point of paleobotany. Botanical Gazette, 110:2–12.Google Scholar
Beck, C. B. 1981. Archaeopteris and its role in vascular plant evolution, p. 193–223. In Niklas, K. J. (ed.), Paleobotany, Paleoecology, and Evolution, Volume 1. Praeger Publishers, New York.Google Scholar
Boardman, D. R. II, and Heckel, P. H. 1989. Glacial-eustatic sea-level curve for early Late Pennsylvanian sequence in north-central Texas and biostratigraphic correlation with curve for midcontinent North America. Geology, 17:802–805.Google Scholar
Boardman, D. R., Mapes, R. H., Yancey, T. E., and Malinky, J. M. 1984. A new model for the depth-related allogenic community succession within North American Pennsylvanian cyclothems and implications on the black shale problem, p. 141–182. In Hyne, N. (ed.), Tulsa Geological Society, Special Publication 2.Google Scholar
Crane, P. R. 1985. Seed plant phylogenetics. Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden, 72:716–793.Google Scholar
Cridland, A. A., and Morris, J. E. 1963. Taeniopteris, Walchia, and Dichophylum in the Pennsylvanian system of Kansas. Kansas University Science Bulletin, 44:71–85.Google Scholar
DiMichele, W. A., and Aronson, R. B. 1992. The Pennsylvanian-Permian vegetational transition: a terrestrial analogue to the onshore-offshore hypothesis. Evolution, 46:807–824.Google Scholar
DiMichele, W. A., Phillips, T. L., and Olmstead, R. G. 1987. Opportunistic evolution: abiotic environmental stress and the fossil record of plants. Review of Palaeobotany and Palynolology, 50:151–178.Google Scholar
Doyle, J. A., and Donoghue, M. J. 1992. Fossils and seed plant phylogeny reanalyzed. Brittonia, 44:89–106.Google Scholar
Heckel, P. H. 1986. Sea-level curve for Pennsylvanian eustatic marine transgressive-regressive depositional cycles along midcontinent belt, North America. Geology, 14:330–335.Google Scholar
Heckel, P. H. 1994. Evaluation of evidence for glacio-eustatic control over marine Pennsylvanian cyclothems in North America and consideration of possible tectonic effects. Tectonic and Eustatic Controls on Sedimentary Cycles, SEPM Concepts in Sedimentology and Paleontology, 4:65–87.Google Scholar
Henderson, S. J., Mapes, G., and Serbet, R. 1994. Medullosan seeds (Stephanospermum) from Upper Pennsylvanian dysoxic marine shales. American Journal of Botany, 81(6):93.Google Scholar
Ignatiev, I. A., and Meyen, S. V. 1989. Suchoviella—gen. nov. from the Permian of Angaraland and a review of the systematics of Cordaitanthales. Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology, 57:313–339.Google Scholar
Kerp, J. H. F. 1982. Aspects of Permian palaeobotany and palynology, II. On the presence of the ovuliferous organ Autunia milleryensis (Renault) Krasser (Peltaspermaceae) in the Lower Permian of the Nahe Area (F.G.R.) and its relationship to Callipteris conferta (Sternberg) Brongniart. Acta Botanica Neerlandica, 31:417–427.Google Scholar
Knoll, A. H. 1984. Patterns of extinction in the fossil record of vascular plants, p. 21–68. In Nitecki, M. (ed.), Extinctions. University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Krassilov, V. A., and Burago, V. I. 1981. New interpretation of Gaussia (Vojnovskyales). Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology, 32:227–237.Google Scholar
Lobza, V., Schieber, J., and Nestell, M. 1994. The influence of sea level changes and possible pycnocline shifts on benthic communities in the Finis Shale (Virgilian) near Jacksboro, North-Central Texas. Pangea: Global Environments and Resources. Canadian Society of Petroleum Geologists Memoir, 17:927–947.Google Scholar
Maekawa, F. 1962. Vojnovskya, as a presumable ancestor of angiosperms. Journal of Japanese Botany, 37:149–152.Google Scholar
Maheshwari, H. K., and Meyen, S. V. 1975. Cladostrobus and the systematics of cordaitalean leaves. Lethaia, 8:103–123.Google Scholar
Mamay, S. H. 1976. Vojnovskyales in the Lower Permian of North America. The Palaeobotanist, 25:290–297.Google Scholar
Mamay, S. H. 1990. Charliea manzanitana, n. gen., n. sp., and other enigmatic parallel-veined foliar forms from the Upper Pennsylvanian of New Mexico and Texas. American Journal of Botany, 77:858–866.Google Scholar
Mamay, S. H., and Mapes, G. 1992. Early Virgilian plant megafossils from the Kinney Brick Company quarry, Manzanita Mountains, New Mexico. New Mexico Bureau of Mines and Mineral Resources Bulletin, 138:61–85.Google Scholar
Mapes, G. 1981. Halletheca conica, Medullosan synangia from the Wewoka Formation in Oklahoma. Botanical Gazette, 143:125–133.Google Scholar
Mapes, G. 1987. Ovule inversion in the earliest conifers. American Journal of Botany, 74:1205–1210.Google Scholar
Mapes, G., Rothwell, G. W., and Mapes, R. H. 1994. Intriguing ovulate fructifications from Upper Pennsylvanian dysoxic marine shale (Finis Shale) in midcontinent North America. American Journal of Botany, 81:97–98.Google Scholar
Mapes, G., and Schabilion, J. T. 1979a. A new species of Acitheca (Marattiales) from the Middle Pennsylvanian of Oklahoma. Journal of Paleontology, 53(3):685–694.Google Scholar
Mapes, G. 1979b. Millaya gen. n., an Upper Paleozoic genus of marattialean synangia. American Journal of Botany, 66:1164–1172.Google Scholar
Mapes, G. 1981. Vallitheca valentia gen. et sp. nov., permineralized synangia from the Middle Pennsylvanian of Oklahoma. American Journal of Botany, 68:1231–1239.Google Scholar
Mapes, R. H., and Mapes, G. 1989. Late Pennsylvanian terrestrial plants in dysaerobic marine environments in north-central Texas, p. 221–235. In Boardman, D. R. II, Barrick, J. E., Cocke, J., and Nestell, M. K. (eds.), Middle and Late Pennsylvanian Chronostratigraphic Boundaries in North-Central Texas: Glacial-eustatic Events, Biostratigraphy, and Paleoecology, Part II. Texas Tech University Studies in Geology, 2.Google Scholar
Mapes, R. H. 1995a. Biotic destruction of terrestrial plant debris in Late Paleozoic marine environment. Lethaia (in press).Google Scholar
Mapes, R. H. 1995b. Do Stephanian upland floras presage the demise of Late Carboniferous wetlands? International Symposium of Ecosystem Evolution, Moscow, Russia(in press).Google Scholar
Meyen, S. V. 1982a. Fructification of Upper Paleozoic Cordaitanthales from the Angara region. Paleontological Journal, 2:107–119.Google Scholar
Meyen, S. V. 1982b. The Carboniferous and Permian floras of Angaraland (a synthesis). Biological Memoirs, 7(1):1–109.Google Scholar
Meyen, S. V. 1984. Basic features of gymnosperm systematics and phylogeny as shown by the fossil record. Botanical Review, 50:1–111.Google Scholar
Meyen, S. V. 1986. Gymnosperm systematics and phylogeny: a reply to commentaries by C. B. Beck, C. N. Miller, and G. W. Rothwell. Botanical Review, 52:300–320.Google Scholar
Meyen, S. V. 1987. Fundamentals of Palaeobotany. Chapman and Hall, London. 432 p.Google Scholar
Meyen, S. V. 1988. Gymnosperms of the Angara Flora, p. 339–381. In Beck, C. B. (ed.), Origin and Evolution of Gymnosperms. Columbia University Press, New York.Google Scholar
Neuburg, M. F. 1955. New representatives of the Lower Permian flora of Angara. Akademy Nauk SSSR, Reports in Palaeontology, 102:613–616[in Russian].Google Scholar
Neuburg, M. F. 1965. Permian flora of the Pechora basin, pt. III. Cordaitales, Vojnovskyales and seeds of gymnosperms. Trudy Geological Institute of Akademie Nauk SSSR, 116:5–144[in Russian].Google Scholar
Nixon, K. C., Crepet, W. L., Stevenson, D., and Friis, E. M. 1994. A reevaluation of seed plant phylogeny. Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden, 81:484–533.Google Scholar
Oliver, F. W. 1904. Notes on Trigonocarpus, Brongn. and Polylosphospermum Brongn., two genera of Palaeozoic seeds. New Phytologist, 3:96–104.Google Scholar
Pfefferkorn, H. W., and Thomson, M. C. 1982. Changes in dominance patterns in Upper Carboniferous plant fossil assemblages. Geology, 10:641–644.Google Scholar
Phillips, T. L., Peppers, R. A., Avcin, M. J., and Laughnan, P. F. 1974. Fossil plants and coal: patterns of change in Pennsylvanian coal swamps of the Illinois Basin. Science, 184:1367–1369.Google Scholar
Phillips, T. L., and Peppers, R. A. 1984. Changing patterns of Pennsylvanian coal-swamp vegetation and implications of climatic control on coal occurrence. International Journal of Coal Geology, 3:205–255.Google Scholar
Read, C. B., and Mamay, S. H. 1964. Upper Paleozoic floral zones and floral provinces of the United States. United States Geological Survey Professional Paper, 454-K:1–35.Google Scholar
Remy, W. 1975. The floral changes at the Carboniferous-Permian boundary in Europe and North America, p. 305–332. In Barlow, J. A. (ed.), The Age of the Dunkard. West Virginia Geology and Economics Survey, Morgantown.Google Scholar
Rice, J., Mapes, G., and Rothwell, G. W. 1994. A Late Pennsylvanian (Virgilian) fructification with one functional megaspore per sporangium from marine shales in midcontinent North America. American Journal of Botany, 81:101.Google Scholar
Rice, J., Rothwell, G. W., Mapes, G., and Mapes, R. 1996. Suavitas imbricata gen. et sp. nov., an anatomically preserved seed analogue of putative lycophyte affinities from Upper Pennsylvanian marine deposits. American Journal of Botany, 83:1083–1090.Google Scholar
Rothwell, G. W. 1981. The Callistophytales (Pteridospermopsida): reproductively sophisticated Paleozoic gymnosperms. Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology, 32:103–121.Google Scholar
Rothwell, G. W. 1982. New interpretations of the earliest conifers. Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology, 37:7–28.Google Scholar
Rothwell, G. W. 1986. Classifying the earliest gymnosperms, p. 137–162. In Systematic and taxonomic approaches in palaeobotany, Spicer, R. A. and Thomas, B. A. (eds.), The Systematics Association Special Volume No. 31. Clarendon Press, New York.Google Scholar
Rothwell, G. W. 1988. Cordaitales, p. 273–297. In Beck, C. B. (ed.), Origin and Evolution of Gymnosperms. Columbia University Press, New York.Google Scholar
Rothwell, G. W., Mapes, G., and Mapes, R. H. 1995. Late Paleozoic conifers of North America: structure, diversity and occurrences. Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology (in press).Google Scholar
Rothwell, G. W., and Serbet, R. 1994. Lignophyte phylogeny and the evolution of spermatophytes: a numerical cladistic analysis. Systematic Botany, 19:443–482.Google Scholar
Serbet, R., and Rothwell, G. W. 1995. Functional morphology and homologies of gymnospermous ovules: evidence from a new species of Stephanospermum (Medullosales). Canadian Journal of Botany (in press).Google Scholar
Stein, W. E. Jr., Wight, D. C., and Beck, C. B. 1982. Techniques for preparation of pyrite and limonite permineralizations. Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology, 36:185–194.Google Scholar
Taylor, T. N., and Taylor, E. L. 1993. The Biology and Evolution of Fossil Plants. Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, 982 p.Google Scholar
White, D. 1936. Some features of the early Permian flora of America. Report of the XVI Session of the International Geological Congress, Washington, D.C., 1:679–698.Google Scholar